Two mothers,
two murders,
two mysteries
No answers as disappearances of 22-year-old
mothers stir little interest outside of North Philly
Franchesca Alvarado not seen since March 17
Melanie Colon’s body found May 12 {page 02}

One of Alvarado’s six sisters, Mia Casteing, spoke emotionally
during a vigil for her missing sister at a North Philadelphia church
on Friday. Her sister disappeared nearly six months ago.

NFL

Not so hot in
Cleveland, but
Eagles survive
Vick pulls out season
opener, 17-16, after sloppy
performance Birds ride
McCoy, defense {pages 19-20}

02

1
In the news

Fake bouncer
cards women
Jersey City police on
Saturday arrested
Michaelangelo Costello, 27, for allegedly posing as a cop, carding patrons at a local bar and
extorting a 22-year-old
woman who didn’t
have an ID, according to
a report from The Jersey Journal. He reportedly told officers he
was on a mission to
stop underage women
from drinking because
he had seen alcohol’s ill
effects on a relative.
METRO/AW

In the news

philadelphia

#1 DAILY NEWSPAPER IN CENTER CITY

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

Gone, without answers

PAIGE OZAROSKI/METRO

Agony of two families goes under
radar in mothers’ disappearances
Suspects remain elusive, they say
The pews at Juan 3:16 Assemblies of God were packed Friday. There were no church services that night — the crowd
was there for a different type of
vigil. “The theme is ‘Keeping
Hope Alive,’” said one of the
event’s organizers, Alma Rios.
“My prayer is that wherever my
sister is, all the love that is in
the church tonight will travel
to her and God will bring her
home to us.”
Rios’ sister, 22-year-old
Franchesca ‘Cheka’ Alvarado,
left her home in Hunting Park
for a trip to Atlantic City with a
male friend on March 13, nearly six months ago. He returned.
She did not.
“We’re here today to inspire
each other and inspire everybody else that’s hurting,” Rios
said of the concert and rally in
Alvarado’s honor. The family
has received an outpouring of
support, with a “Find Franchesca” Facebook page garnering
over 5,200 likes. Rios said they
get three to four hundred emails from strangers across the
country.
“They’ve known people
who’ve disappeared,” said another of Alvarado’s sisters, Tina
Diori, of the supporters who
have helped the family raise a
$25,000
reward,
largely
through the sale of $10 t-shirts.
“They have loved ones who
have also gone missing. With
this case, a lot of them say it’s
so close to home. They say they
can really relate.”
For Ralphiee Colon, who sat
a few rows behind Alvarado’s
family Friday night, the concert

hit close to home. His sister
Melanie ‘Zee’ Colon, 22, a former acquaintance of Alvarado’s, went missing on May 8 after she was picked up by Reynaldo “Chino” Torres at the
family’s home on the 2400
block of North Reese Street,
about a block away from the
church. Her body was found in
a lot four days later, but Torres
never resurfaced.
“It’s about to be four
months and we still don’t
know nothing,” Ralphiee Colon
said Friday afternoon. “It’s so
painful to just know that my
sister is six feet under and her
killer is still out there, that’s
why I want this to be worldwide and I won’t stop. Because
someone knows something in
this world and someone’s going to say something.”
Like Alvarado’s family, Ralphiee has been bolstered by the
support he’s received through a
Facebook page he made for
Melanie, receiving hundreds of
messages from those who have
suffered similar losses. “Everybody goes through something,”
he said. “That’s why when I
read stories, I know I’m not the
only one going through something like that.”
As horrific as both these cases are, they are further compounded by the not knowing.
“I look up to Cheka’s family so
much because they’ve got faith
and ain’t nobody stepping on
their toes and they’re gonna
keep their faith up,” Ralphiee
said. “Because if it was me, I
wouldn’t be like that. I would
be broke down if my sister was

still out there.”
Rios said that devastation is
what her family is coping with
now when it comes to Alvarado. “Every night, the last thing I
think about before I go to sleep
is, ‘Where is she?’” she said.
“The first thing I think about
when I wake up each morning
is, ‘Is this the day?’” Diori said
that, despite the theme of the
concert, it’s hard to remain

hopeful. “I just know that,
wherever she is, she’s not okay,
unless she’s deceased and she’s
with God,” Diori said. “But if
she’s out there and she’s being
held hostage — these are the
things you think about when
have a loved one that’s missing.
Is she okay? Is she suffering?”
ALEX WIGGLESWORTH
awigglesworth@metro.us

Voter ID debate
Pennsylvania’s
requirement that voters present photo
identification before
casting a ballot won’t
deprive citizens of any
rights, state lawyers
told the state Supreme
Court in a filing. Voting rights of as many
as 1 million people
could be compromised
by the photo-ID law,
according to the lawsuit. Arguments
before the court are
scheduled for Sept.
13. BLOOMBERG

No national
attention for
Cheka or Zee
The families may not get the
Natalee Holloway-level of national media attention.
They may never appear on
Nancy Grace — Alvarado’s relatives said a call to the show was
rebuffed — or America’s Most
Wanted, despite the fact that
when producers recently asked
Facebook users to suggest cases to air, there were over 3,000
comments in support of Franchesca, Rios said.

‘Overwhelmed’
in North Philly

But they have each other, a
community ravaged — and
bonded — by loss.
“One thing about our community is that we stick together,” Rios said. “No matter how
many people point their finger
at this community, we stick together. All the people here
tonight are going to
demonstrate that.” METRO/AW

The storm of emotions whipped
up by Melanie Colon’s unsolved
murder is tearing the family
apart at the seams, they said.
“We’re grieving, we’re angry,
we don’t know how to cope,
we’re not getting answers,” her
stepmother Marybell said. “Cheka’s family’s trying to work with
the community, and we’re trying
on our own, but yet there are no
efforts outside of that to give us
the answers that we want. Because at the end of the day, we
live in North Philly and there’s so

PAIGE OZAROSKI/METRO

many things going on in North
Philly every single day that police are overwhelmed and
there’s just no answers. So that’s
why the community’s got to
step up so that people like
Melanie, she’s not going to be
forgotten.”
She said that remembrance
is an important part of continuing to fight for awareness of the
two women’s stories. “The sad
part of this is that … the public
eye’s not there,” she said. “But
there’s two kids that are suffering, that are going to grow up
without their mothers, and
we’re not going to let that be
forgotten.” METRO/AW

#1 DAILY NEWSPAPER IN CENTER CITY

Five murders over weekend

Council aides
charged in DUIs

Five people are dead following
at least four separate shootings and one stabbing over a
particularly violent weekend.
Police have not released
any of the victims’ identities
or possible motives for their
slayings. No arrests have yet
been made in any of the incidents.
The deaths bring the number of homicides to 244 this

Police: Aide crashed in Callowhill Then another
council employee appeared to help but got arrested
Two City Council staffers are
facing charges — and possibly
the loss of their jobs — after police say they drove under the influence after a crash in the Callowhill section of Philadelphia
early Saturday morning.
Authorities said Council
President Darrell Clarke’s receptionist Robin Jones, 50, was
driving a city-issued 2008
Chevy Cobalt when, around
2:30 a.m., she struck a street
sign, then skidded into the side
of a building at 13th and Hamilton streets. Jones told police
that she swerved to avoid hitting a bicyclist.
Investigators said that Jones
called friend and City Council
Sergeant-at-Arms
Rodney
Williams, 42, who showed up
to the accident in a 1997 Ford
Explorer, which was also city-issued. Officers on the scene
could see that Williams was
“visibly intoxicated,” police
said.
“The employees, one a receptionist and the other a sergeant-at-arms, were not authorized to use the city-owned vehicles at the time of the incidents,” Clarke said in a statement. “These acts, if confirmed
by the authorities, display a level of conduct and disregard for
public safety that cannot be tolerated.”
Both Jones and Williams
were arrested and charged with
driving under the influence.
Jones, who was also charged

In the news

US government
gets to keep rare
coins, judge rules
PHILADELPHIA. A federal judge
last week upheld a ruling that
10 gold 1933 Saint-Gauden
double eagle coins valued at
about $80 million belong to
the U.S. government, not to the
descendants of a Philadelphia
coin dealer who found them
nine years ago wrapped in a
paper Wanamaker’s bag and
sealed inside a safety deposit
box, according to a report from
The Courthouse News Service.

“I have been
informed by the
Philadelphia Police
Department that
two City Council
employees face
possible DUI
charges following
incidents involving
city-owned vehicles
early this morning.”
COUNCIL PRESIDENT DARRELL
CLARKE SAID IN A STATEMENT

with driving on a suspended or
revoked license, was arraigned
shortly before 9:45 p.m. Saturday night. Williams was arraigned around 1:40 a.m. Sunday morning. Each were released on their own recognizance, according to court documents.
“I await the results of a full
investigation by the Philadelphia Police Department and
will take appropriate action,”
Clarke said.
ALEX WIGGLESWORTH
awigglesworth@metro.us

Israel Switt was allegedly
given the stolen coins by
Philadelphia Mint cashier
George McCann in 1933, just
before then-President Franklin
D. Roosevelt ordered U.S. banks
to vacate the gold standard as
the Great Depression dawned.
The majority of the $20 coins
were melted down, making
them extremely rare.
After finding his stash,
Switt’s descendants gave the
coins to the Philadelphia Mint
for authentication, but the government instead seized them.
A jury found last year that the
coins were likely stolen and
rightfully belonged to the United States. METRO/AW

03

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

Homicides
through yesterday in 2012, almost 10
percent more than
through the same day in
2011

244

year so far, nearly 18 percent
more killings compared to the
same time period in 2009.
The first of the slayings

was a 17-year-old shot in the
stomach and found lying near
Finley Playground Stenton
around 11:10 p.m. Friday.
The last slaying was of a 22year-old man whom police
found lying inside a home on
the 1500 block of Federal
Street in South Philadelphia at
about 3 a.m. yesterday with
gunshot wounds to his side
and upper back. METRO/AW

Romney says he
would keep parts
of health care law
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has
called for scrapping President
Barack Obama’s 2010 U.S.
health care law, said in remarks aired on Sunday that he
likes key parts of “Obamacare”
despite his party’s loathing of
it and wants to retain them.
Romney, who faces Obama
in the Nov. 6 election, has
vowed throughout the campaign to repeal and replace the
Obama healthcare law. But
asked about the Obama
healthcare law on NBC’s “Meet
the Press” program, Romney
said, “Well, I’m not getting rid
of all of health care reform.”
“Of course, there are a
number of things that I like in
health care reform that I’m going to put in place,” Romney
added. “One is to make sure
that those with preexisting
conditions can get coverage.
Two is to assure that the mar-

Romney

ketplace allows for individuals
to have policies that cover
their family up to whatever
age they might like.”
The Obama health care law,
among other provisions, prevents insurance companies
from denying medical cover-

News in brief
Obama widens lead
despite jobs data
President Barack Obama, picking up support following the
Democratic National
Convention, widened his
narrow lead over Republican
U.S. presidential challenger Mitt
Romney in a new Reuters/Ipsos
poll released on Saturday.
The latest daily tracking poll
showed Obama, a Democrat,
with a 4 percent lead over Romney. Forty-seven percent of
1,457 likely voters surveyed online over the previous four days
said they would vote for Obama
if the Nov. 6 elections were held
today, compared with 43
percent for Romney.
“The bump is actually happening. I know there was some
debate whether it would happen. ... But it’s here,” said Ipsos
pollster Julia Clark, referring to
the “bounce” in support that
many presidential candidates
enjoy after nominating conventions.
Obama had leapfrogged
Romney in the daily tracking
poll on Friday with a lead of 46

percent to 44 percent. REUTERS

age to people who already are
suffering from a medical condition. It also allows parents to
keep their young-adult children on their health insurance
plans until age 26.
The law is Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement.
Elements of the state
health care reform plan that
Romney put in place as governor of Massachusetts served as
a model for the federal law
passed by the U.S. Congress
and signed by Obama in 2010
despite unified Republican opposition.
“I say we’re going to replace Obamacare. And I’m replacing it with my own plan.
And even in Massachusetts
when I was governor, our plan
there deals with preexisting
conditions and with young
people,” Romney told “Meet
the Press.” REUTERS

“I actually thought parts of
the Clinton speech were eerily
anti-Obama, if you just listened
to the subtext. I mean, here is
Clinton saying, ‘I reformed welfare because I worked with the
Republicans, you didn’t, Mr.
Obama.’ He didn’t say it that
way, but think about it,”
Gingrich told CNN’s “State of
the Union.”
Gingrich, who was a sharp
critic of Clinton during his presidency, added: “I think what it
does is it actually shrinks Obama. I mean, you have a real
president and then you have
this guy who is a pretender.”
REUTERS

Gingrich: Clinton
DNC speech “eerily
anti-Obama”

DNC said to end
$15 million short

Former Speaker of the House of
Representatives Newt Gingrich
on Sunday tried to turn Bill Clinton’s rousing Democratic convention speech into a liability
for President Barack Obama,
calling it “eerily anti-Obama.”
Gingrich argued that
Clinton’s efforts to remind voters about the economic heyday
of his two terms in office could
be seen to undermine Obama,
who is struggling to reignite the
economy and job growth.

Democrats ended their convention in Charlotte $5 million short
of their budget even after being
forced to draw down a $10 million line of credit from Duke Energy Corp., according to a Democratic Party fundraiser.
That will leave a $15 million
bill that eventually will have to
be paid by President Barack
Obama’s campaign or the Democratic National Committee, according to the fundraiser, who
spoke on condition of anonymity. BLOOMBERG

Metropolitick

GREGORY
KANE
PULITZER-NOMINATED NEWS
AND OPINION JOURNALIST

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

LOVE’S LABORS
LOST ON LEFT
HATE-SLINGERS

ROLL CALL/GETTY IMAGES

Mia Love is the mayor of
Saratoga Springs, Utah.
She’s also a Mormon, a
Republican and the
daughter of parents who
immigrated to the United
States from Haiti. And
after her speech at the
Republican National
Convention — one in
which Love made it clear
she did not prostrate herself before the altar of
Barack Hussein Obama —
the Haitian-American
Mormon mayor became
something else: a target.

F

or years, it’s been
unfashionable to be
black, Republican and
conservative. Most
African-Americans have decided we all must be Democrats
and liberals. Deviate from the
norm, and you’ll be treated
with the disdain usually
reserved for the Tonton
Macoutes. Lately, even that’s
changed. It’s not enough for
blacks to be Democrats and
liberals. Now, to prove our
racial loyalty, we almost have
to genuflect when President
Obama’s name is mentioned.
There are those that have apparently charged, tried and
convicted Love of insufficient
genuflection, but I’m sure
she’ll be happy to agree with
them.
“[Obama’s] policies have
failed,” Love said at the RNC.
“We are not better off than we
were four years ago, and no
rhetoric, bumper sticker or
Hollywood campaign ad can
change that. Mr. President, I
am here to tell you we are not
buying what you are selling in
2012.” That must have sent
some Obamaphiles over the
edge. They became unhinged,
downright balmy enough to
go to Love’s Wikipedia page
and “update” her biographical
data.
Foxnews.com reported the
story with the title “Mia Love
Wikipedia page vandalized
with slurs.” (What? You
thought CNN, the Huffington
Post or MSNBC were going to
report the story?) “Rising Republican star Mia Love’s
Wikipedia page was
vandalized overnight with

racist and sexist epithets,” the
first paragraph of the story
reads. Further on, we get details of what was said.”[O]ne
section called her a ‘dirty,
worthless whore’ who sold
out to big business.”

O

nce again, we see Republican, conservative
women being subjected to the most despicable sexist slurs imaginable.
(It makes you wonder, doesn’t
it, which side of the political
spectrum REALLY hates
women?) A New Jersey writer
called former Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice a
“skeeza” — a slang term for
whore — several years ago.
You remember the outrage
Democrats and liberals
expressed at his comments,
don’t you? Of course you
don’t. You don’t remember
them being outraged after socalled comedian Bill Maher
used a certain C-word to refer
to former Alaska governor and
Republican vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin, either.
Oh, there was more on
Love’s Wikipedia page. We
don’t know if the same person
that called her a “dirty, worthless whore” also wrote that
Love was “a sellout to the
right-wing hate machine.” The
writer also accused Love of being “the House N— she truly

is.”
You have to be aghast at
the sheer chutzpah of someone spewing such hate accusing anybody of “selling out to
the right-wing hate machine.”
But liberals and Democrats
sincerely believe that only Republicans, conservatives and
members of the Tea Party
movement can truly hate.
Such hypocrisy explains
why you never hear that nword used by conservatives,
Republicans or members of
the Tea Party movement,
while those on the left seem
to have cornered the market
on it.
No Republican or Tea Party
movement group has used
that word to refer to Obama.
But a member of the New
Black Panther Party did, earlier this year. We didn’t hear
outrage from Democrats or
liberals about that either.
When — not if — Democrats start accusing the Republican presidential nominee
and/or vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan of being a
racist, let us recall how members of the donkey party reacted to the scurrilous attack on
Love.
– Examiner Columnist Gregory
Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated
news and opinion journalist who
has covered people and politics
from Baltimore to the Sudan.

Monday, September 10, 2012

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06

Opinion

JUSTIN
DOWD
WINNER OF METROâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S
RACE TO SPACE

www.metro.us/weirdscience

Log on
Justin has produced a chalkanimation video to accompany this column. View it at
www.metro.us/weirdscience

TRUE STORY OF
NATUREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CHAOS
What does your future have in common with
your morning coffee, hurricanes, gambling,
sports and the galaxy? All are intertwined by
a mysterious property of nature called chaos.

T

he key to chaos is the poetically
named butterfly effect, which is a
slight change in a chaotic system
drastically effecting what happens in
the long run. Weather is an example
of a chaotic system. A shift in wind as subtle as
air passing around a butterflyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wings can
trigger the development of a hurricane weeks
later, on the other side of Earth.
Your B.S. meter may be off the charts. But
before you dismiss the idea, consider football, a
chaotic American pastime.
Like the weather, football is chaotic. One detail, one step can alter the outcome of the
game, the season, the franchise and peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
lives for generations.
If Drew Bledsoe stepped out of bounds to
avoid a season-ending hit in 2001, second-string

$22,999

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Roosev
On the ss ffrom the x
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Acro y Interple
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Metro does not endorse the opinions of the author,
or any opinions expressed on its pages.

Leslie swirls east of Bermuda
A tropical storm warning remained in effect across Bermuda,
where forecasters warned hazardous surf and rip currents
were expected to continue through today. Most flights in and
out of Bermuda were canceled yesterday, and bus and ferry
services were suspended. REUTERS

rder and chaos are even in atoms.
The players, ball and field are like
electrons, photons and space. The
nucleus and atoms are connected by
forces like playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; movement
connected by the rules of the game.
Similar to free will causing unpredictable
behavior in humans, exact movement of individual particles in an atom cannot be measured
or predicted. The laws of nature donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t allow it,
resulting in a fundamental link between chaos
and order.
Stirring cream into coffee causes a spiral
pattern to emerge while the motion of
molecules is turbulent. The same pattern in
coffee can be seen in a hurricane, even though
the movement of air is unpredictable. The spiral pattern even shows up in the galaxy we live
in, composed of billions of stars, planets, dark
matter and dust.

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quarterback Tom Brady would have
remained sidelined. A single step changed careers, contracts, Super Bowl wins, retirement
plans etc. This is the essence of chaotic
systems, two slightly different starting points
result in completely different outcomes.

At least 80 people were killed
yesterday in attacks across
Iraq, including a car bomb outside a French consulate.
Sunni Islamists and an alQaida affiliate still launch
about one major attack a
month in an effort to reignite

French target
The car bomb that exploded
outside the French consular
building in the usually stable
city of Nassiriya, 186 miles
south of Baghdad, killed a police guard and wounded four
other guards, authorities said.
The consul, an Iraqi citizen,
was not at the office at the
time of the attack.

tensions between Shi’ite and
Sunni Muslims following the
U.S. military withdrawal in December.
The most serious of the
bombings, blasts and shootings on Sunday happened near
the city of Amara, 185 miles
south of Baghdad. Two car
bombs exploded outside a
Shi’ite shrine and a market
place, killing at least 16 people,
officials said.
With its main hospital overflowing with patients injured
from the attacks, mosques in
Amara used prayer loudspeakers to call for blood donations.
Overnight in Dujail, 30
miles north of Baghdad, gunmen and a suicide bomber
driving a car attacked a military base, killing 11 soldiers

Iraqi policemen inspect the wreckage of a car used in a bomb
explosion yesterday in a market in the southern city of Basra.

and injuring seven, police said.
Later yesterday, a car bomb
killed eight people lining up
for jobs as police guards for the

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Fugitive Iraqi VP
gets death sentence
BAGHDAD. Iraq’s fugitive Vice
President Tareq al-Hashemi was
sentenced to death for murder
charges yesterday in a ruling
likely to further stoke sectarian
tensions after a bloody day of
bombings that killed at least 80

across the country.
Hashemi, a senior Sunni
Muslim politician, fled Iraq after
the authorities issued a warrant
for his arrest in December, a
move that threatened to
collapse a fragile power-sharing
deal among Shi’ite, Sunni and
Kurdish blocs at a time when
U.S. troops were pulling out.
REUTERS

minister urged Iran to make
“substantial offers” to restart nuclear talks with world powers
and told Israel allowing the

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was “not an option.”
Guido Westerwelle’s
comments followed weeks of
rhetoric in Israel over a possible
go-it-alone strike against Iran’s
nuclear facilities and calls by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu for world powers to
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2

THE WORD

Metro’s Monica Weymouth shares her take on the world of gossip

@monicaatmetro

Bummer breakup of
2012: Poehler, Arnett
ALL PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

The feed ...
Checking in with
some of Hollywood’s
biggest names to see
what they’ve been up
to — in their own
words, in 140
characters or fewer.
@joelmchale
Sad news: the phrase
“hot mess” is six
months past it’s expiration date. Also “I just
threw up in my mouth
a little” is over(2 years).
@lindsaylohan
just sending love,
prayers and strength to
#PrinceHarry
@katyperry
Today I am promised
happiness. Let’s do this!
@AlbertBrooks
“Shocking. Nude. Sex.
Devastating” Four
words you must use to
have a successful website.
@JimGaﬃgan
New saying: “A cheeseburger a day keeps the
feelings away.”

When we found out that Amy
Poehler and Will Arnett were
divorcing last week, we assumed there must be the scandal of all scandals hiding behind their split. Nevermind
that their rep insisted it was
“very amicable” — why would
two people as funny, successful
and charming as them break
up? As it turns out, they’re not
that much different than those
of us who fall asleep watching
reruns of their shows, snuggling piles of almost-warm
takeout.
“Will and Amy started to
feel more like best friends than
a married couple — and sadly
they lost their spark,” a source
tells RadarOnline. “The two still
love each other very dearly, but
the romance died and neither
one of them was happy, so
something had to be done.”
Talk about shot through the
heart. Go ahead, Source, finish
us off: “Everyone used to think
that because Amy and Will are
both comedians, their relationship was all fun. However, the
laughter stopped a long time
ago, and now they just want to
move on with their lives.”
Now, we’re not necessarily
saying that love is dead. Just
that he’s emptied the minibar,
went on an ugly Facebook bender and, well, things aren’t
looking good.

monica.weymouth@metro.us

Brad Pitt is
still walking
down the aisle
Despite the sad prognosis of
love, Brad Pitt and Angelina
Jolie still think they can
make it work. The Marriage
of the Century is a go, confirms Pitt, even if there isn’t

Depp talks
Tater Tots
Johnny Depp was at the

Toronto Film Festival over
the weekend supporting
“West of Memphis,” a documentary about three men
who spent more than 18
years in prison for “satanic”
murders that they — along
with pretty much everyone
outside of their sleepy
Southern town — claim
they did not commit. After
his release from prison, one

a date set. “No plans yet,
other than we are going to
do it,” he tells E! News. “I
plan very little as I get older.”
As for George Clooney,
his role at the nuptials is also still undecided. “Well,
you know, he doesn’t
believe in institutions,” Pitt
says. “So he can get people
to their seats or something.”

of the men, Damien Echols,
moved in with Depp.
“To finally see Damien
arrive at my house, on my
doorstep, was moving and it
was a celebration. It was
beautiful,” said Depp at a
press conference for the
film. “We had Tater Tots
and tacos. And things took
their natural course and we
ended up at the tattoo parlor.”
Now, 18 years is a steep
price to pay for Johnny Tots.
But don’t think we didn’t
run the numbers.

Depp and Echols have matching tattoos
and similar taste in shades.

Couldn’t you guys just fake it
like the rest of us?

@DannyDeVito
Shake it up baby!

tically involved. Dustin Hoffman helped him get a role in
“I Heart Huckabees,” his film
debut.

Talking points
Jonah Hill and Ali
Hoffman split

Won’t someone
think of the gossip
columnists?

Jonah Hill and girlfriend Ali
Hoﬀman have reportedly split

Joel
McHale

up after nine months of
dating, according to Us Weekly. The Oscar-nominated actor
had been close to Hoffman
and her family — including
her dad, Dustin Hoﬀman — for
years before becoming roman-

Hill

While the future of Robert
Pattinson and Kristen Stewart’s
relationship is still uncertain
after her affair with director
Rupert Sanders, at least one
friend of the pair says not to
worry. “They are totally going

to get back together,” the
source tells Hollyscoop. “It is
just a matter of time. Kristen
has this effect on Rob. Robert
is not a player. It is really a
mess of a relationship. They
are both in love with each other still.” That might be a problem, though, for friends of Pattinson. “They tell him, ‘If she
cheated once she will cheat
again,’” the source says.

Katy Perry and John
Mayer are back on
It appears reports of the

demise of Katy Perry and John
Mayer’s relationship were premature, as the pair were spotted at the MTV Video Music
Awards after-party looking
very much still together,
according to Hollyscoop.
“[John and Katy] were holding
hands walking around the VIP
area looking like a legit
couple. They weren’t even hiding it,” the source says. The
couple — who split last
month after briefly dating —
soon left the party, though, in
favor of a more intimate dinner at a restaurant.

my

#1 DAILY NEWSPAPER IN CENTER CITY

09

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

myentertainment

4

1

2

3

5

Right back
at you,
Sir Paul

1

Paul McCartney received the
“Legion d’Honneur” from
France’s president Francois
Hollande on Friday. The world
received a thumbs-up. Excellent
trade, gentlemen.

2

Hugh Grant and his signature
half-smile charmed the pants
off Toronto on Saturday.

left, Willow, Jaden and Jada —
were on the red carpet at the
Toronto Film Festival yesterday.

3

5

Why hello, Hermione. “Harry
Potter” cutie Emma Watson
freshened up the red carpet for
her latest, “The Perks of Being a
Wallflower.”

‘Katie’
3 p.m. ABC
For 15 years, Katie Couric
helped America wake up as coanchor of the “Today” show.
She became the first solo
female anchor of a national
nightly news broadcast when
she helmed “CBS Evening
News with Katie Couric” from
2006 to 2011.

Personality

Jeﬀ Probst is the Emmy
Award-winning host of
“Survivor”; he has helmed the
reality show since 2000. Formerly, he hosted “Rock & Roll
Jeopardy!” and was a reporter
for “Access Hollywood.”

something to say
Comedian Steve Harvey got
into the daytime talk game

early, premiering
his self-titled chat
show last week.
Prompted to host
a show after the
success of his relationship advice book “Act Like a Lady,

What to expect
“Katie,” taped live from NYC and
mixing news and entertainment,
sounds a little like a one-hour version of “Today.”
“I’m going to be able to flex all
my muscles [on ‘Katie’],” Couric
says, referring to her 33 years on
both ends of the TV news spectrum. “I’ve done … some fun stories, some celebrity-driven
stories. And then I’ve done very

Think Like a Man,” the “King of
Comedy” featured “the worst
dater in America,” overprotective parents and an introduction to poi exercise during his
first week of shows.
“Steve Harvey,” ABC

Secret weapon
Sheryl Crow wrote
and performed the
“Katie” theme
song, reminding us
of the A-list
contacts list that
has got to be on
Couric’s iPhone,
which she’ll be
able to tap for
interviews.
Crow will appear on the
first episode,
as will Jessica
Simpson.

serious stories. I pride myself on being able to use
the right tone and the
right approach and to be
able to calibrate that approach depending on
who I’m interviewing or the topic
that I’m dealing
with on any
given day.”

“I pride myself on being able to use the right
tone and the right approach and to be able to
calibrate that approach depending on who I’m
interviewing or the topic that I’m dealing with
on any given day.” COURIC

Katie
Couric

Sheryl Crow

GETTY IMAGES

Lake is your sympathetic
girlfriend who has been there,
done that and always has her own
funny anecdote to share.
“I have been rich. I have been
5 p.m., The CW
poor. I have been fat. I have been
Ricki Lake became a star in
thin,” Lake admits. “I’ve had this
John Waters’ classic film “Hairlife experience, and I’m an open
spray.” She hosted her
book. I’m willing to share my
titular chat show
hardships and my triumphs.”
from 1993 to 2004,
Her mission for her rethen produced a
turn to talk is “that this
documentary
can be a smart show
about childbirth,
[where] people can learn
“The Business
from each other, have
of Being Born.”
a great time and
She came in
walk away with
third place on
“Hairspray”
some takeaway,”
“Dancing with
she adds.
the Stars” in ’11.

Noon, NBC

Harvey also has

GETTY IMAGES

Couric is the sweet aunt who will
take you for brunch and a
manicure, listen to your
problems, then scold you
because you know better. She
hopes “Katie” delivers
information — from daily news to
dating tips — that is “smart with
heart.”

‘The Ricki
Lake Show’

‘The Jeff
Probst Show’

With Oprah’s crown still up for grabs, three new
celebrities enter the talk-show fray today Here’s
what you need to know about the contenders

“Ricki Lake” became a phenomenon when Lake, then in her 20s,
addressed the (often scandalous) concerns of the younger
generation and encouraged audience participation. Now 43,
Lake intends to continue engaging her fans, but with a more
grownup approach and topics
that affect, primarily, women between the ages of 25 and 54.
“Today, times are really

Don’t underestimate the nostalgia factor for Ricki Lake, Talk Show
Host. The studio audience started
a “Go Ricki” chant — a hallmark
of the host’s first show — during
taping of the new show’s second
episode.
“It feels like a natural kind of
thing,” Lake says of the cheer. “I’m
not opposed to it. I mean, it’s very
endearing and makes me feel
very welcome.”

tough. We’re all trying to figure
it out and put food on our plates
and be in the job force and raise
families and, you know, figure
out the aging process and how
to reverse it,” Lake says. “I mean,
we all are trying to do the best
we can. So I think doing a show
now that’s a little less fluff, a little more substance — that’s
something I would be looking
for as a viewer.”

“I think doing a show now that’s a
little less ﬂuﬀ, a little more substance —
that’s something I would be looking for
as a viewer.” LAKE

Ricki Lake

MONTY BRINTON/CBS

Your over-sharing big brother
who is also your biggest
cheerleader.
“I think my weakness ... will be
a strength,” Probst says of his tendency to share “sometimes too
much.” “In daytime, when you are
asking people to share their life
on the level that I’m going to go
to, you have to be willing to share
yours,” he adds. Probst’s wife, Lisa
Ann Russell, will often contribute
to the day’s conversation.

“The overall idea of the show is saying
yes to the adventures in your life — I
mean being married, being a parent,
dating, friendships.” PROBST

“If you’re looking for Jerry or
Maury, this is not your show,”
Probst says. “I’m not interested
in people fighting onstage.”
You can forget about seeing
celebrities promoting their
latest movie, too, unless they
are able to add to Probst’s
message of positivity and
embracing new experiences.
“The overall idea of the show
is saying yes to the adventures
in your life — I mean being
married, being a parent, dating,
friendships,” he says. “At the
end, this really is what defines
our life, those adventures. And
that’s the idea behind the show,
and we will talk about that all
the time.”

Jeﬀ Probst will continue to host “Survivor”
in addition to his new daytime talk show.

Only “The Jeff Probst Show”
boasts a party room complete
with massage chairs, makeover
stations and snacks for its audience. Probst says the set was designed to be an extension of his
living room, a place “where you
feel comfortable enough to kick
off your shoes.”
The party room serves two
purposes, he explains: “One, we
want the audience to feel welcome, and we also want them
to spread the word — if you are
looking for something fun to do
in L.A., check out ‘The Jeff Probst Show.’”

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amber.ray@metro.us

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Nov. 17, 2012

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#1 DAILY NEWSPAPER IN CENTER CITY

11

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

myentertainment

Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feeling like a million bucks
SHERVIN LAINEZ

Amanda Palmer on her relationship with art and
her fans She doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really think â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Theater Is Evilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
A compliment makes a gal feel
like a million bucks, and
thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no greater compliment
than, well, a million bucks,
which is what Amanda Palmer
received via her fan-fueled
Kickstarter fundraiser for her
new album, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theater is Evil.â&#x20AC;?
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I got 1.2 million in
preorders,â&#x20AC;? corrects Palmer.
Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s speaking from New
York, where sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rehearsing
with her band, the Grand Theft

Orchestra. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean I
have a million dollars. It does
mean that business is good.â&#x20AC;?
Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no denying the validation when fans shell out before hearing a single note of
music, though.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big symbolic gesture
on the part of my fans that tells
me they have an enormous
amount of faith in me. But this
is the relationship I have developed ... which isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t about mu-

sic. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about art and love and
creating a community. The music is a bit of a red herring.â&#x20AC;?
Palmer catches herself and
laughs at her last statement.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Well, if I werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a performer, none of this would be
happening,â&#x20AC;? she adds. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not
interested in having fans and
admirers. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to be a
pop star. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m among those
artists who use art and music to
connect.â&#x20AC;?

Amanda Palmer and the Grand
Theft Orchestra play tonight at 7 at
TLA (334 South St.). For more info
visit www.tlaphilly.com.

For Amanda Palmer, calling
an album â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theater Is Evilâ&#x20AC;? is
like Snoop calling a project â&#x20AC;&#x153;I
Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Like Marijuana.â&#x20AC;?
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I do love theater, the title is
highly ironic,â&#x20AC;? says Palmer.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;But I struggle with the current manifestation of the
theater world. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dying a
strange death and hopefully
experiencing a rebirth the
same way music is. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not
the artists creating it, but the
way culture feels about it. So
much is academic.â&#x20AC;?

LINDA LABAN

linda.laban@metro.us

ANTHONY L. FARROW, DMD, MS
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Levine, Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo
Green better grease up those
spinning chairs and exercise
those button-hitting fingers,
because a new round of
singers is ready to wow them
during blind auditions
tonight. Season premiere,
8 p.m., NBC

Found Theater Company follows up its
Fringe success with another ambitious production

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Electric Jungleâ&#x20AC;? runs through Sept. 13 at the Painted Bride.
For tickets and showtimes visit www.livearts-fringe.org.

W

ith
last
yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Event End,â&#x20AC;? a freewheeling performance meditation on
the end of civilization, Found
Theater Company emerged as
one of Philly Fringeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most inspiring troupes.
This year the company is
moving up in the world: Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no
longer performing in a dilapidated North Philly warehouse,
but in the plush, respectable
confines of the Painted Bride
Arts Center. However, its latest
wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t utilize the Brideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actual
theater space; that would be

far too obvious for these young
experimentalists.
Instead, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Electric Jungleâ&#x20AC;?
promises to transform the
backstage and rehearsal spaces
of the venue into exactly what
the title suggests, using papiermache and a whole lot of voltage.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve created this place
where nature and technology
meet, where we have this tension between the natural world
and the digital world,â&#x20AC;? says director Phoebe Schaub.
Thematically, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Jungleâ&#x20AC;? presents the same basic dramatic

question as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Endâ&#x20AC;?: Where exactly are we, as a species, headed? But Schaub promises a
little more levity this time
around.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s definitely not a comedy
by any means, but I was finding that so much of the work
in this was playful and funny,
which was surprising, because
last year things were so heavy.
But, I gotta admit, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think
weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ever going to make a
comedy. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just not us.â&#x20AC;?
BRUCE WALSH

Thriller â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The
Possessionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
keeps grip on
box office
Horror movie â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Possessionâ&#x20AC;?
kept its hold on the box office
title over the weekend with $9.5
million in U.S. and Canadian
ticket sales, according to studio
estimates on Sunday.
In a slow weekend, the story

about a young girl possessed by
a demon came in ahead of
Prohibition-era crime drama
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lawless,â&#x20AC;? which grabbed $6
million during its second weekend in theaters.
In third place, new romantic

hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a fine line between helping others
and being a peoplepleaser, and mistaking
one for the other can be detrimental. When we put othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
needs before our own, we deplete our energy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which can
lead to depression, physical illness and feeling overwhelmed.
People-pleasing also can become so ingrained that it creates a victim mentality in us:
People who give too much are
susceptible to being taken advantage of, and then resentment sets in. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve felt that
resentment, you might think
itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s directed at others. Yet, underneath it is resentment toward yourself, for giving away

Zen in the city
GABRIELLE
BERNSTEIN
WWW.GABBYB.TV

your power. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a peoplepleaser, chances are that that
behavior stems from your own
insecurities. We can seek a
sense of self-worth in our ability to take care of others.
Becoming aware of this behavior is the first step to healing. If you think youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re
someone who overly peoplepleases, ask yourself:
What am I trying to get by

comfortable initially, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
crucial to create a new pattern
of taking care of yourself first.
Lastly, start to create boundaries. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a people-pleaser,
itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s likely that folks have come
to expect a lot from you. Start
sharing with your friends and
family members your desire to
take care of yourself first.
Letting others in on your shifts
will help them help you.
Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing wrong with
helping others â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but your own
physical, mental and emotional
health must come first.

overly giving?
What would happen if I
stopped putting others ďŹ rst?

Hidden beneath your desire
to serve others is a deep desire
to feel good enough. Getting
truthful with yourself about
your need to people-please will
help you begin to change the
behavior.
Next, become conscious of
putting yourself first. Dr.
Christiane Northrup, a contemporary wellness pioneer, says,
â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fill your own cup
up first, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have nothing to
give.â&#x20AC;? Self-indulgence is a radical act of self-care. At least once
this week, do something kind
for yourself. This may feel un-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gabrielle Bernstein is the
author of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Spirit Junkie.â&#x20AC;?
Metro does not endorse the opinions of the
author, or any opinions expressed on its pages.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sorry, I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help out tonight.
Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a date with myself.â&#x20AC;?

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Startup profile:
The indie cafe
Think there are already too many cafes in Philly?
Turns out quality, not quantity, is what matters

A

t first glance, it may appear that the cafe/coffee-shop business is
approaching a point of
maximum
saturation
in
Northeastern cities. Not so, says
Francisco J. Migoya, author of
â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Modern Cafe,â&#x20AC;? one of the
seminal books on the business.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are an enormous
amount of cafes and coffee
shops that arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as good as
they could be. Many of these
places will outsource a lot of
their products. Sometimes, all
they think about is coffee, and
their pastries are made in a factory somewhere,â&#x20AC;? says Migoya,
who also teaches at the
Culinary Institute of America.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;In New York City there are
maybe between seven and 10
very good cafes,â&#x20AC;? Migoya adds.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;So for somebody with a little
bit of capital, who makes sure
theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re offering fresh, quality
products, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a really great business to be in.â&#x20AC;?
Longtime barista Brittney
Lewis noticed a dearth of coffee
quality in her Philadelphia
neighborhood and, more importantly, a lack of positive
community spaces.
In 2010 Leotahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Place

Brittney Lewis (pictured with son Gibran) built a
thriving cafe in Kensington by thinking beyond coďŹ&#x20AC;ee.

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